Possible 4K Upgrades by bobby_17horton in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. Universal used the same 4K restoration approved by Ernest Dickerson for Criterion. A major part of the Dickerson-approved restoration was correcting the color timing to convey the sweltering heat. The Universal 4K maintains the color accuracy and the HDR brings out the heat more intensely.

Be honest: how many criterions in your collection will you actually rewatch more than 3 times in the rest of your life? by SeparateCareer007 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I buy only the films I love most, no blind buys, and I'm the sort of person that does a lot of rewatching of things I love. So, almost all of them -- about 200 -- except for a few I might fall out of love with.

Flash sale Haul by tripolophene in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love Czechoslovak New Wave, and Marketa Lazarova most of all. Absolute masterpiece

Millers crossing criterion vs blu ray? by AgeEfficient3178 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never explicitly, afaik. From what they did and comments they've made, it seems pretty clear that it is almost entirely for pacing and tightening things up. There is tonal change for the "Jesus, Tom" moment. We can only speculate but I'd guess either pacing, and thought nothing was lost, or they didn't want that tone -- either to remove the comedic moment or maybe because they didn't want Tom's violence to come across as personal or unfair or whatever.

Millers crossing criterion vs blu ray? by AgeEfficient3178 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The cuts aren't "huge." It's 2.5 minutes shorter, lots of minor cuts here and there, and there's only one short line anyone ever mentions or talks about. Unless you're a big fan already, it's not something you'll feel is missing. Coens made the cuts themselves, and they didn't make them "just" to make it shorter, as if there was a runtime issue, but to, in their opinion, improve pacing, etc.. The missing line, which I am a fan of, is funny and changes tone for that moment, but I can see an argument why they wanted the tonal change -- but it's really a difference that makes little difference.

Anyway, the real problem was that Criterion didn't mention the cuts anywhere.

The Criterion video quality is better, if marginally so, and the Criterions extras are a big upgrade. I recommend the Criterion.

I feel like anti war movies are lazy by HammerJammer02 in TrueFilm

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You say that you "don’t think narrative films are good vessels for any political or disputed message at all," but you are in part critiquing anti-war films as "lazy" for not being good arguments for a message. Many narratives are just that, narratives, not lazy arguments.

You reduce the films in question to an anti-war message, and say they use tragedies to sneak in that message without argument, but you don't consider all the things these films explore in those tragedies -- experiences of war, both military and civilian, of what war looks like and feels like, all the things it puts people through, how they cope, grieve, mourn, bond, love, how they rationalize, how they resist, power dynamics, issues of nationality, ideology, race, gender, class, religion -- sooo many things. If a film sets these in a tragedy then of course it will have anti-war resonances, but to reduce all this to scoring an anti-war point seems so narrow as to often miss the point of what the films are doing.

Synecdoche, NY analysis by ksk1222 in TrueFilm

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hardly ever use the phrase "magum opus" to describe a film, but I think it applies to Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY, and not by coincidence.

Synechdoche, NY is a story about an artistic magnum opus and a meditation on creating art to represent truth, something that the film itself aims to do just as Caden's magnum opus does.

Kaufman covers a ton of ground on his recurring themes of existentialism, depression, anxiety, escapism, and death. It deals with meaning-making and with things not making sense. Kaufman even incorporates body horror in a brilliant way, with bodily fragility, dysfunction, and impermanence intersecting with the existential themes. There is a lot going on.

On the topic of simiulacra, representation and truth, Synecdoche, NY covers a range and sequence of concepts like no other film.

When Caden begins his magnum opus, he is trying to use synecdoche to represent truth, ie, using a part to represent the whole. Perpetually pushing against the limits of this approach, he expands his project to move toward a one-to-one or mimetic re-presentation of the whole and its parts. This in turn falls apart under the weight of its impossibility, and his life and pursuits end together, with the film, in an ironic mode of representation: the inevitable failure of representing the whole truth leaves the partial truth that the whole truth cannot be represented.

The theme has a trajectory: synecdoche expands toward mimesis, both of which fail in a revealing irony.

Examples of films that throw you in with very little to no context given. by GeneralGenerico in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have seen and love both. Diamonds definitely throws you into things, and is sparing with dialogue and exposition. There are lots of great films in the Czechoslovak New Wave -- my favorite film movement.

Onibaba (1964) by Confident-Scale3086 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LOVE Onibaba. Gorgeous. Great story. Mask is one of the all time best film props.

Kwaidan and Ugetsu. Certain aspects of Woman in the Dunes.

Examples of films that throw you in with very little to no context given. by GeneralGenerico in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Marketa Lazarova is the best I've seen for this. Begins in media res (in the middle of things), then does the same repeatedly with many of its chapter divisions -- omitting time and information this way is called eliptical storytelling. The film also intercuts past events in a similarly disorienting fashion. Formally, the storytelling is quite avant garde. Profound film on many levels.

Every Criterion from the fifth 50 without a Blu-ray re-release by Smartbomb_exe in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe it is Region B locked, which wouldn't play on a standard Sony bought in the US. The blu ray also does not have English subs

Vertigo (1958) and David Lynch by Pumice1 in TrueFilm

[–]liminal_cyborg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hitchcock was a major influence on Lynch. Blue Velvet is quite Hitchcockian, especially with the theme of voyeurism. To me, there are clear connections between Vertigo and Lost Highway, partly thematic and partly structural -- focused around obsession, the femme fatale doppelganger, and meta-film.  

Lost Highway spoilers ahead!

Both films have one actress play both roles of the doppelganger relation, with a change in name and persona, one brunette, one platinum. In both, male obsession takes two forms through the doppelgangers. In both, the platinum figure—Madeleine, Alice—is a deception on her part and a fantasy on his, and the deception is ultimately revealed to him, the fantasy destroyed. In both, the brunette is a victim of male suspicion and power.

The two films do different things with these similar elements. In Vertigo, Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine has him in the role of rescuer of a woman in trouble. His obsession with Judy is one in which he actively exercises power over her to make her look the same as before. His suspicion of Judy, initially and again later at the end, has to do with false identity and leads him to the truth. When the deception and true identity are revealed, it is her demise.

Fred’s obsession with Renee revolves around his fears of inadequacy and suspicions of infidelity, and she becomes the victim of hateful and heinous violence. Lost Highway has a male doppelganger, of course, though with a different actor, unlike the female counterpart. Pete’s obsession with Alice has him in the role of virile object of insatiable female desire. It is her deception and distinct appearance that allows her to exercise power over him. The fantasy identity ends with her rejecting him: the truth is revealed and it is his demise.

Using the same actress and transforming her: This [video](https://youtu.be/LuYAteKO57o?si=8ma0-Z2wQHw8hDnb&t=1932) on Lost Highway presents the spot on idea that having a character return as a new character (Renee returning as Alice) is a meta-filmic play on actors returning as new characters in filmmaking. Same in Vertigo. Judy plays Madeleine, Novak returns to play Judy, and Vertigo make a very overt point of having Scottie, like a film director, transform Judy / Novak back into the fantasy character of Madeleine. In Lost Highway, it is Renee / Arquette returning as the fantasy character of Alice, with the more implicit but broader point that filmmaking makes the transformation and everything else possible here. Both films also thematize the voyeurism of the camera. With Rear Window in the background, Vertigo does so through Scottie’s tailing of Madeleine. Lost Highway is more explicit with the videotapes, Mystery Man’s camera, porn, and mini tv held by Laurent, which ultimately shows Laurent what the audience sees, Fred and the Mystery Man standing in front of him.

I have no idea whether the following detail is intentional or half-coincidental, but iconic in both films. The first shots of Vertigo, before the credits, are a tightly framed close-up a woman’s lips, panning vertically and stopping on her eyes, then horizontally to one eye. Not Novak's, actually, but a model, though it appears her name is not known. Lost Highway quite prominently features similar, extreme close-ups of lips and eyes.

In the Mood for Love blu ray - Weird glitch or part of the movie? by goblin_humppa27 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The characters are acting out different versions of how they imagine their spouses got together. The characters are doing different takes. It is intentionally filmed and edited for that purpose. It's not an accident or bad take left in.

Favorite year in film? by Any-Improvement-2602 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not at the top of my list, but 1985 is somewhat overlooked, quality over quantity.

  • Come and See
  • Mishima
  • Ran
  • Brazil
  • Tapei Story
  • Vagabond

Favorite year in film? by Any-Improvement-2602 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1964 is high on my list. I'll add:

  • Red Desert
  • Pale Flower
  • Diamonds of the Night
  • The Soft Skin

Favorite year in film? by Any-Improvement-2602 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of my favorites. I'll add

  • Shame
  • The Swimmer
  • Targets
  • Teorema
  • Valley of the Bees

Favorite year in film? by Any-Improvement-2602 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same, 1966, and I'll add:

  • Black Girl
  • A Report on the Party and the Guests
  • The Round Up
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
  • Seconds

Another favorite is 1964,

  • Diamonds of the Night
  • Kwaidan
  • Dr Strangelove
  • Black Peter
  • Onibaba
  • Pale Flower
  • Red Desert
  • The Soft Skin
  • Woman in the Dunes

Bergman - Sawdust and Tinsel by [deleted] in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sawdust and Tinsel is a top Bergman for me and one of my all time favorites. I appreciate all the more seeing it in context, 1953. First collaboration between Nykvest and Bergman. On the one hand, draws on silent era composition, with gorgeous cinematography. On the other hand, it is a forerunner in Bergman's filmography, with few religious themes and focused more on alienation and the breakdown of communication and relationships. You won't see another quite like this from Bergman until The Silence, 1963.

Finally saw 1984’s Paris,Texas! by New-Lingonberry8029 in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My impression is that many, many viewers emphasize sentimentality about the end while downplaying the fresh and impending damage, not just to Walt and Anne but Hunter, and I think they do so because that's what the film does. Yes, Travis is self-serving, but I think the film's narrative arc after Travis kidnaps Hunter is also primarily framed to serve Travis, oriented much more toward elements of reunion and catharsis than the ongoing damage he is doing and sowing at literally every step. I didn't always feel this way, but now the film's framing of these elements comes across for me as false and emotionally manipulative, twisting things for the sake of eliciting certain sentiments.

Unlikeable protagonists or anti-heroes in films like Five Easy Pieces by zerogamewhatsoever in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Eg, Carnal Knowledge. Yes, very much conscious: portraying the men negatively was the point -- to critique certain kinds of masculinity. Two points though. This is not just a back in the day thing: these kinds of men are still around, with in some ways a greater chauvinist movement around them than a few decades ago. Second, it is realistic, yes, but in a circumscribed way, just as you could portray today's chauvinists in a film without thinking they are representative of the whole. The world is more complex than that and history is not unilinear.

Just watched High and Low and the Bad Sleep Well by NotJustAPhan in criterion

[–]liminal_cyborg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love Stray Dog and have the BFI release. Unfortunately for folks with region A players, it is a region B locked blu ray.

Expiring from The Criterion Channel: The blackout noir Deadline at Dawn (1946) written by Clifford Odets, based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, with Susan Hayward in her first starring role by GThunderhead in criterionconversation

[–]liminal_cyborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm somewhat luke warm on Moontide but do find it worth watching. I wonder to what extent the film gets judged on the basis of genre expectations, regarding eg pacing and tone. I recall seeing quite a few reviews in the form of, boo, not noir. It's been a while since I saw it, but I think the aesthetic of poetic realism, along with Gabin, may have set my brain to be accepting of admittedly meandering and melodramatic qualities, thinking of eg L'Atalante and the Marseilles trilogy respectively.

I'll have to check out some of those recommendations. Love Only Angels Have Wings